You have probably noticed over the past couple days that I’m not exactly over the moon about the Pirates’ play to this point in the season, 7-5 record or not. What would make me extremely happy, however, is a couple wins against the Brewers this week. I know Brewers’ fans think it’s funny that we Pirate fans get all worked up over these two teams, but I really, really don’t like Ryan Braun or Prince Fielder or their stupid untucked shirts and frankly, everyone needs a little bit of a rivalry to get through the season.

Game 1 of this three-game set features Charlie Morton trying to get himself back on track against Dave Bush. Bush missed a bunch of time last year with some injuries, but he’s come back pretty strongly in his first two starts this year. Andy LaRoche is still out with his back spasms, so Bobby Crosby will start at third Crosby’s out with some shoulder trouble, Delwyn Young is in at third base tonight.

First pitch is 7:05; Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump. Recap may come late tonight since the Penguins and LOST are both on, because I want to see Morton pitch no matter what.

Not sure what this is? Check here and here. Short version: in the comments pick the Pirates you think will be most and least valuable in today’s game. If you haven’t jumped aboard yet, it’s been a lot of fun through so far and now’s as good a time as any to join in.

Paul Maholm’s strong start gave him the Clemente nod, but surprisingly no one tabbed him prior to the start of the game. Unsurprisingly, no one had the runner up in Jason Jaramillo, who’s double on Jonny Gomes’ Wild Ride resulted in three runs and an insurmountable lead for the Bucs. The Cangelosis caused a bit of movement, though. Andrew McCutchen was the goat, which cost a couple people points, while Ronny Cedeno was second, which granted a surprising (because he’s been the team’s best hitter to this point, natch) number of people their one point.

Here are the standings, let me know if I’ve counted anyone wrong to this point:

About Pat Lackey

In 2005, I started a WHYGAVS instead of working on organic chemistry homework. Many years later, I've written about baseball and the Pirates for a number of sites all across the internet, but WHYGAVS is still my home. I still haven't finished that O-Chem homework, though.